Adding a rooster to a flock that already has a rooster in it

[Amy's Animals]

Hi everyone,
I have 2 roos, a 6 month old RIRxEE and a 4-5 month old BOxBR. The RIRxEE is in with the hens (13 of them) and the BOxBR is all by himself (altough he was raised with 5 of the hens). Now, I want to see if I can add him to the flock with the other roo so I can use that cage for other purposes. Would that work? Or would they fight and try to kill each other? They would have 6.5 hens each.
Thanks

 

[GAchick]

No the dominant roo would have 13 hens, and the other guy nothing....

 

[Amy's Animals]

yes, but i thought chickens established harems? if i had 20 hens and 2 roos, i doubt one would get all.

 

[ninjascrub69]

they will fight to establish a new pecking order but if you have enough hens they shouldnt kill eachother.

 

[gryeyes]

There's a chance the dominant rooster would not let the secondary roo have any girls. BUT that doesn't mean fight to the death or even to injury! My rooster tolerates other roosters so far... the young ones. He just lets them know he's the Boss. They back down really quickly. Nothing more than flared neck feathers and the occasional chest bump. Plus a squawk or two.

Your mileage may differ, though.

 

[Amy's Animals]

Gryeyes,
Were your roosters raised together though? As in, the younger roos were already around the older one since they were chicks?
Thank you

 

[vnploveschickens]

I'm watching my flock of 16 closely. I have my main rooster, Herman, about 2 years old now. We have 5 pullets and 6 hens all laying.

We had 2 chicks hatch in May that are definately cockerals. We had 2 more hatch in July that I think are 1 of each.
All 4 chicks were hatched and raised by 2 broody Buff Orpingtons with the rest of the flock.

So far, the cockerals are not having any problems with Herman. They have started to crow, and every so often, we see one or the other
mating (or practicing) on the hens. Herman doesn't seem to mind, at least yet.

I'm keeping a close eye on all of them hoping they all get along

Good luck!

 

[mmaddie's mom]

Are you free-ranging at all? Might work if he has space to get away until they work it all out? Also more hens would be good.

 

[Amy's Animals]

No, I'm not free-ranging because of hawks, cars, and other pests, but I do let them out every so often. If I do happen to introduce them to each other, it will be when they are free-ranging for that reason. My space is limited so I can't get anymore chickens.

 

[gryeyes]

Amy's Animals :

Gryeyes,
Were your roosters raised together though? As in, the younger roos were already around the older one since they were chicks?
Thank you

The older, boss Rooster is 10 months old. The little roosters - and they are little - they're bantams - are about 20, 22 weeks old. They have been in the population for 12 weeks or so, but the first two weeks of that was in a separation/integration area. When they were 8 weeks old, I put two Silver Sebrights, a bantam Buff Brahma and a cochin out in the Duck House, with a temporary fence up to give them a little bit of the run to themselves. Only the cochin is female; the Sebrights and buff Brahma are all cockerels. The main population and the newbies could see each other, hear each other, smell each other, and even chest bump through the temporary chicken wire fence separating them. After two weeks, I simply removed the temporary fencing, and the Big Chickens just acted like "Oh, it's you little fellas, you're not strangers." The four newbie hung out in a small gang of four for the longest time. Now the Sebright roos are terrorizing ALL the pullets as they tag-team 'em in attempts to mate. The Brahma boy is much nicer and tries to offer up a Drop Wing, Circle Dance of courtship, first.

The Big Rooster doesn't mind the little ones at all, but he WON'T let them bother the hens in his presence.​